I have recently started listening to audiobooks on my iPhone. Is there any app that will find the audiobooks in your library and play them where it's separate from your music app? Here is the problem I have... I want to listen to music in my car, but I want to listen to audiobooks when I go for a walk. My car has Bluetooth and it automatically starts playing my phone when I crank it up. But now I am constantly having to switch my now playing list from the book to music and vice versa. I have tried a couple of apps specifically for audio-books but they still change the now playing of the built-in Music app. Any ideas?

After posting those two links earlier, I have downloaded the second (because it was cheaper) and find it to be nearly perfect. It imports from your itunes library, and it is simple, clean interface, and works beautifully. No muss, no fuss.

After posting those two links earlier, I have downloaded the second (because it was cheaper) and find it to be nearly perfect. It imports from your itunes library, and it is simple, clean interface, and works beautifully. No muss, no fuss.

And can you confirm that it does not change your now playing list in the Music app? Do you happen to know if it will work with Audible books that are in your iTunes library?

And can you confirm that it does not change your now playing list in the Music app? Do you happen to know if it will work with Audible books that are in your iTunes library?

No, it doesnt work with DRMd audiobooks, I suspect none of the iTunes downloaded books would work with anything else except iPod on Apple devices. Most of mine are not DRMd, but those that are cannot be played in this app. I have a very few downloaded via iTunes, the rest are sourced elsewhere and converted to m4b, bookmarkable, via Audiobook Builder.

As to whether now playing is altered... You are using a completely different application to access a different file, so when you return to itunes, whatever you were playing last will be whats showing.

No, it doesnt work with DRMd audiobooks, I suspect none of the iTunes downloaded books would work with anything else except iPod on Apple devices. Most of mine are not DRMd, but those that are cannot be played in this app. I have a very few downloaded via iTunes, the rest are sourced elsewhere and converted to m4b, bookmarkable, via Audiobook Builder.

Audible does not use Apple DRM, they have their own DRM and audio books that work in Audible will work on all audible supported devices.

Okay, I got Audio Butler and it looks good. Thanks for finding it. In the future I will just add my nonDRM audiobooks directly into the Audio Butler app instead of putting them in the iTunes Library. I don't use Audible, but my sister does so I was asking about it for her, because she would also like to keep music and audiobooks separated.

Audible does not use Apple DRM, they have their own DRM and audio books that work in Audible will work on all audible supported devices.

Dale

I see. Well I can't answer for that because audiobooks on the Australian store are Bolinda sourced, not Audible. Maybe we in Aus are being screwed again. All I can tell you is that the books *I* purchased from the Apple store *in Australia* will not work in an external player.

For the same reason I described in my original post. I want music to remember its now playing status, and audiobooks also to pick up where I left off without wiping the music playlist. If you use the built-in Music app, playing an audiobook wipes out your music playlist and vice-versa. And a lot of third-party apps (even several I tested that were specifically for audiobooks) will modify the device's universal now playing list. That's why I wanted to make sure before buying Audio Butler.

Even though I usually use the app "CarTunes" for music, when I would play an audiobook in the Music app, the next time I'd open CarTunes, my music playlist would be replaced with the audiobook.

Now with Audio Butler, the device now playing is kept separate and not touched when an audiobook is played from Audio Butler. I can still add the audiobooks to my device library and they won't play when I "shuffle all" because they are tagged as audiobooks.

I would think the Audible App would behave the same way, but my sister does not use it for playback--she didn't say why.

For the same reason I described in my original post. I want music to remember its now playing status, and audiobooks also to pick up where I left off without wiping the music playlist. If you use the built-in Music app, playing an audiobook wipes out your music playlist and vice-versa. And a lot of third-party apps (even several I tested that were specifically for audiobooks) will modify the device's universal now playing list. That's why I wanted to make sure before buying Audio Butler....

Thanks again for suggesting Audio Butler.

Oh right, I see. Thats not something thats ever worried me because 99% of my listening is to books. I just pop back in to music, whatever I feel like listening to.

An interesting thing I just observed was that when playing an audiobook you were playing in the other app, the ipod remembers where you were up to when you access it there. Its probably normal behaviour, I just thought it was a nice thing.

A warning about Audio Butler for others who might find this thread looking for something similar... I tried to send the audio to two different Bluetooth devices and it just won't switch the audio to another output. I emailed support from within the app and my message bounced, then I tried the website and it can't be reached. Very disappointing. So only buy this app if you are planning to use the iPhone speaker or corded earphones.

I've had this exact problem and the best solution I've found is to use the downcast podcast app. Use something like ifunbox or itools so you can see the folder structure for the app and drag n drop whatever you want to listen to into its media folder. Then, in the downcast app there is an import function that will automatically convert to the downcast format AND keep the files out of the Itunes library. It will keep track of place in multiple audiobooks and you can also listen to them at faster speeds if you'd like. Might sound difficult, but I find it much easier and way more reliable than the apps in this thread (most of which I've tried at some point).